Fertility Foundations: Herbs, homeopathy and natural medicine for fertility with Jenya Di Pierro
Welcome to the latest series of Fertility Foundations, where we speak in depth with expert guests about how to prepare the foundations for healthy pregnancy. This week Sandra Greenbank is talking to Jenya Di Pierro, Naturopath, Herbalist and Homeopath, all about herbs, homoeopathy and the power of natural medicine.
Jenya is also the Founder and CEO of Cloud Twelve, a wellness and lifestyle club in Notting Hill. She has been awarded a prize for outstanding contribution in the field of natural medicine by the College of Naturopathic Medicine and makes all her own bespoke herbal remedies in her botanical pharmacy.
Jenya’s practice supports a range of health conditions and particularly focuses on hormonal and gut health, fertility and autoimmune wellness. Her interest in wellness was sparked while living in Japan for 12 years but her passion for natural remedies was born 10 years ago when she witnessed the power of plants when her father fell ill. She has also overcome her own health challenges using a naturopathic approach. Jenya’s work begins by a full assessment and testing before drawing up a bespoke treatment plan that encompasses nutrition, lifestyle, herbal medicine, and homoeopathy.
Listen to this episode of the Fertility Foundations podcast with Jenya Di Pierro here.
Find Jenya on Instagram here: www.instagram.com/jenyadipierro
or contact her on email via Cloud Twelve: jdpclinic@cloudtwelve.co.uk
You can also book a consultation directly with Jenya by following this link: https://www.cloudtwelve.co.uk/jenya-di-pierro-book-a-consultation
Our sponsors for this episode of Fertility Foundations are NeoVos, a UK-based lab that provide at-home health tests and cutting edge analysis. Knowledge is power and in my opinion, you need to always check not guess your levels of Omega 3 and vitamin D so that you can supplement correctly if you need it. I found the novice test really easy to use and affordable. The team at NeoVos have kindly offered Fertility Foundations listeners a 10% discount by using the code FERTILITY at the checkout. Visit the NeoVos website for more information.
Podcast transcript
Sandra Greenbank 00:04
Hello and welcome to the Fertility Foundations podcast, where we go into detail about how to prepare the foundations for healthy pregnancy. We dive deep into the underlying root causes for fertility issues and natural solutions. I want you to know that you’re not alone and you’re not broken. I hope that by sharing these episodes this will help you move from feeling overwhelmed and lost to feeling hopeful and empowered to take charge of your own path to parenthood, because there are actually lots of things that you can do to help rewrite your own story.
I’m Sandra Greenbank, nutritional therapist, functional medicine practitioner, coach and educator, specialising in fertility, pregnancy and postpartum health. I’m also the founder of the Fertility Nutrition Centre, where you can find fully trained experts in nutrition, lifestyle and functional approaches to a healthy fertility and pregnancy. You can find more information over at www.fertilitynutritioncentre.org and also book in a free strategy call with one of our experts.
Today I’m speaking to Jenya Di Pierro all about herbs, homoeopathy and the power of natural medicine. Jenya is, in my opinion, one of the best kept secrets in the wellness space. She’s an incredible healer, an all-round wonderful person and a very skilled practitioner. Jenya is the founder of Cloud Twelve wellness and lifestyle club in Notting Hill. She is a naturopath and herbalist and has been awarded the prize for outstanding contribution in the field of natural medicine by the College of Naturopathic Medicine. Jenya’s practice supports a range of health conditions though her specialties are hormonal and gut health, fertility and autoimmune wellness. Her interest in wellness was sparked while living in Japan. But her passion for natural remedies was born 10 years ago when she witnessed the power of plants and intelligent nutrition when her father fell ill and she has also overcome her own health challenges using a naturopathic approach. Jenya’s work begins by a full assessment and testing before drawing up a bespoke treatment plan that encompasses nutrition, lifestyle, herbal medicine, and homoeopathy. She makes all her own bespoke herbal remedies in her botanical pharmacy which is stocked with 300 different herbs from all over the world. I have personally worked with Jenya, and the results at time seemed a bit like magic. So I’m really excited to talk to her today about her work.
Before we get into the interview, I wanted to talk a little bit about our podcast sponsors, NeoVos. They’re a UK lab that provide at home health tests and cutting edge analysis. I personally like the vitamin D and Omega three tests, which are absolutely crucial to get right for anyone trying for a baby. Knowledge is power. In my opinion, you need to always check not guess your levels of Omega three and vitamin D so that you can supplement correctly if you need it. I found the novice test really easy to use and affordable so the NeoVos team have kindly offered our listeners a 10% discount on their website using the code FERTILITY at the checkout. Their website is simply www.neovos.com. All of these details are also in the show notes for you.
Now let’s get into today’s interview with Jenya. So Jenya, thank you so much for joining me on the podcast. Please, could you introduce yourself?
Jenya 03:18
Sure. So I’m Jenya Di Pierro, a naturopath with a diploma in herbal medicine and homoeopathy from the College of Naturopathic Medicine. And also five years ago, I founded a wellness and lifestyle club called Cloud Twelve in Notting Hill, which encompasses different types of wellness, physical, mental and emotional but also social, and environmental.
Sandra 03:47
I have so many things I want to talk about, sort of about the things that you have at the club and all the amazing wellness technology you bought in but that’s probably for another podcast, we’re going to talk today about women’s health, mainly Hormonal Health, and herbs and homoeopathy and how that can help in addition to all of the other lifestyle things that you’re doing at home, so, can you explain first of all how herbs and herbalism can contribute to our health?
Jenya 04:15
Yeah, for sure. And, you know, Hormonal Health is my favourite topic because I do focus on female health and also autoimmune wellness. And my first profession is herbalism well before I quit finance, or after I quit finance and essentially, you know, I fell in love was plants when I was actually trying to help my dad overcome a serious illness and started doing various courses in nutrition and herbs. And then there was this wild moment when I realised the immense power that plants have and how this knowledge is disappearing. Now modern world and we need more people to kind of revive it and spread the word. And that’s when I signed up to do herbal diploma course. And essentially, plants absorbed vital nutrients from the soil in order to thrive and survive. And this is exactly what they do to our bodies. So they support various organs and tissues, with their phytonutrients. And what’s amazing about them is that they, they’re basically food. So our body understands them really well and absorbs them way better than, you know, any pills, especially pharmaceutical medication. Herbal Medicine actually is still used as primary form of medicine by about 80% of the world population. And, of course, the data is skewed a bit by the Chinese and Indian people. But even 25% of pharmaceutical drugs are derived from herbs, most famous being aspirin, which comes from willow bark, but the problem there is that they’re stripped of the cofactors, which, you know, first of all, affects the absorption, but also kind of magnified certain characteristics that then can cause side effects, if they’re kind of out of balance. And I had a quite a few, you know, especially when I started practising as a, as a herbalist, and, you know, I always thought the herbs of gentle, you know, side effects are rare, they’re very, very soft on the body, which is true. But then I had patients coming with me on steroids, or antibiotics, and, you know, one woman has been taking them for three years, for example, and then I’ve given her herbs. And they cleared the condition in three days. And that was kind of shocked at the house possible, where antibiotics, you know, couldn’t do that anymore. And, and then, you know, of course, I realise how well first of all, our budget can develop resistance to anything given herbs. So pharmaceuticals. And secondly, it is it is just so close to, to how we eat and how we live our lives. So sometimes they just go in, and they’re way more effective than anything else, we kind of take medicinally
Sandra 07:28
that’s really interesting. And also, I really liked the idea that it’s an ancient wisdom that you that has been used safely for so many centuries or for such a long time. And, you know, I’ve been to your house, and you have this incredible kind of setup where you’re, you know, steeping and creating all these amazing vinegars, and yeah, all of it, you know, it’s so it’s just such a, it’s just a nurturing way also even to connect to nature and to connecting to those plants, and then kind of passing them on. And you know, and I think there are a lot of, you know, because a lot of pharmaceutical companies are looking at herbs and plants and kind of looking at what is the active ingredient in that, for example, you know, ginger or tumeric, and then they strip out the one bit and then they kind of concentrate that and try and you know, and you’re saying and I can connect with that, you know, if you take out one piece of the plant, it might be the one thing that’s the studies have shown is actually effective, but also you’re missing the potential protection or, you know, whatever it is, and, like tumeric, for example, is better absorbed with black pepper. And that’s how you would have it in food.
Jenya 08:41
Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, tumeric I think it’s most effective in the traditional Indian preparation, which is curry. So, you know, turmeric needs oil and turmeric needs blackpepper form of absorption. It’s actually kind of interesting. I have to confess this is one herb that I like to use in supplement form. Rather than you know, our traditional herbal preparations include tinctures, powders, teas. And tinctures is basically a herb macerated in alcohol and water solution, right chemicals extract it in this way. And it’s excellent because alcohol is a great carrier and it kind of absorbs directly into our bloodstream and, you know, because we don’t metabolise very well, these days don’t have sufficient enzymes and stomach. So one, sometimes, you know, tincture way off, administering herbs is actually quite effective for those people who would struggle to break down the capsule and so on. Having said that, it’s quite known that turmeric is not terribly bioavailable, its to absorb its phytochemicals. So supplements did a great job at creating liposomal forms of it. to waste the black pepper and everything else. And so that’s actually one example where I would go to, to supplement companies to use it. But to your point on all of this kind of ancient traditions, you know, of course, we don’t have as many clinical trials, because often when I’m back my surgical companies, and the method of trial is quite different, because we look at the cause of the condition. So you know, 10 people was amenorrhea, absent periods, I will give 10 different formulations, because the course can be completely different. It’s stress related, it can be gut related, and so on. So it’s difficult to do a trial with the same herb on 1010 People edition, but actually, you know, some of the formulas, they go back 1000s of years. And that’s a lot of evidence anecdotal. But nevertheless, and actually one of the, this kind of revelations earlier on my herbal career that I mentioned regarding steroids, so the woman was was taking steroids for her psoriasis and, and I’ve given her this ancient Ayurvedic formula to reset skin. And she called me in three days and said, My psoriasis is completely disappearing. And I was shocked because I was like, Okay, well, we need to start you on the diet, we need to do all of this protocols, we haven’t just given you the hub, this is my first step, as you know, you know, from conditions is best to work on a three month basis, where you look at three pillars of health, you know, lifestyle, medicine, stress reduction, the diet, you know, supplements functional tests, if needed. And so, and then she gets given this herb and everything starts improving, not to say that we don’t need to continue with the rest of it. But But that’s, that’s formula has been used for 5000 years. And it still proves the best the race for resetting the skin isn’t that amazing?
Sandra 12:05
And you could use that you would use that for just the process or,
Jenya 12:11
well, actually, not not really in Ayurveda, it’s called armour clearing. we digress a little bit from Hormonal Health, but actually, this is the basis of all health. So armour is basically toxins. There are two concepts in there, whether there’s Arma, which is toxins, and there’s Agni, which is digestive fire, basically what we need, we need to remove armour, which is basically called armour clearing formula. Toxins, send them proof various elimination channels like kidneys, and liver and gut and lymph and so on. And then you boost Agni, which is your digestive fire, digestive health, so that all the foods that you take and so on assimilated well. This is actually how you can basically solve 90% of your cases, right, you remove all of the kinds of negative factors stress actually being one of them. That’s always need to be taken into account, but also kind of toxic, like Wells and so on. And you kind of give the body the power to function at its optimal way, and absorb everything efficiently. And then the body just does itself healing after you’ve like looked after this two factors, augments and then becomes a little bit more complex. We now look at circadian rhythms and sleep and rest and how people exercise and what kind of infections then they’ve been exposed to, and what kind of trauma emotional trauma especially that they’ve gone through that affected their health and so on. But the big picture two main principles, they’re actually pretty much the same as Ayurveda. Stated 5000 years ago.
Sandra 14:05
Yeah, so bringing the body back into balance to allow it to do its own healing, circling. I mean, I could go on forever and talk to you about homoeopathy herbs. Sorry about herbs but also you do homoeopathy. Yeah, and recently added having homeo botanicals, which is like mind blowing for me to even kind of try and get my head around. So, could you explain a bit about what that is as well
Jenya 14:33
to say, basically, if we talk about the three pillars that I use, having said that, I do believe that it should always be food first, like all of us. And absolutely, you know, ideally, we should just maintain ourselves with healthy diets and so on. Right but when we have chronic conditions, then we do extra support from from other modalities. So, plants work on various pathways, they have phytochemicals that bind to receptors and you know, do their work. And that’s quite scientific and you know can be analysed. And then a homoeopathy is this amazing invention by Hanuman, who was actually a doctor 200 years ago and looking at various practices of that time that were quite harmful to human biology. You know, people use bloodletting and mercury, and other kinds of poisonous medicines that, that were helping was a few things but eventually kind of killing the patients. So he started looking at very, very diluted forms of those substances. And his hypothesis and his great revelation was that there is an energetic component to everything in life. I mean, we know it now. We can’t quite prove it yet. But, you know, quantum physics is is onto something there and various people call it intuition or sixth sense and whatnot. So his hypothesis was what if I dilute the substances greatly and just kind of use the energy of a plant or a mineral to heal people? What is going to happen and the results were incredible. So he found that the energy of those substances also has efficacy. And and then there are about 3000, or even more of homoeopathic remedies. And interestingly, they’re not just made from mineral supplements or animals. There’s homoeopathy made from Rainbow. This homoeopathy made from X ray which is actually very effective for radiation. You know, there’s different types of homoeopathy that use energetics and chakras and, you know, crystal healing and divine light and so on. And for me personally, the reason I got into homoeopathy is that I found in my practice that so many people got ill after they suffered a particular trauma. So you can be talking to someone with diabetes or arthritis, something sort of unrelated to emotional trauma and you ask them when did it all start and they would say, Well, it happened when I lost my mom or you know, when I broke up with my partner and so on. And then you understand that there is a layer a block that is sitting your budget, which is not allowing it to functions full potential, you know, that self healing is blocked by certain kinds of layers, it can be a layer of toxicity, you know, from many years of pharmaceutical medication, that can be actually some genetic layers as well. And, and from a long term illness, which basically depletes our vital force. It’s actually quite known that pharmaceutical medication depletes our vital force. So essentially, people after being sick for for a long, long time and, and taking this medication, which suppresses the vital force, they need a bit of a you know, kind of spark of energy to get them back on track. So what I found that, homoeopathy was very, very effective on this kind of emotional layer, which for me was very difficult to reach, you know, with herbs or supplements. And, you know, people suffered from shock and, or people who’ve so eel that whatever you given them, they just can’t assimilated, they might afford just needs to be woken up. And so homoeopathy, and essentially it’s a just a sugar pill. So, Chemically speaking, there’s just sugar and water. And for this reason, actually, it’s suitable for kids or pregnant women or elderly who are not a lot of medication that basically no contraindications. So to give you an example, how it works, aconite is a is a very famous remedy for shock but also for kind of onset of colds and flus and so on. And if the symptoms match, because you know, in homoeopathy there are about, I don’t know 20 cold remedies, right. So, in Alconite, the onset is sudden and person is it look a little bit frightened and can be kind of Hot and cold and and the fever can actually rise quite quickly. So, you give homoeopathy and it does not kind of suppress or make it go away. But what it does, it can magnify symptoms slightly to let the body processes quite quickly. The analogy would be, you know, when you have a fever and you take a hot drink and you get hotter, but then you sweat it out and the disease leaves you which is much, much better way to get back to balance then say, you know, taking anti inflammatories which basically disabled body’s defence and the infection just spreads and it takes longer to recover. So, we’ve got homoeopathy that basically works on energetics and we’ve got herbs that works on the physical body. And then there’s this person in New Zealand, maybe 50 years ago who created a cross between homoeopathy and hubs where you take a diluted form of a herb but not as diluted as homoeopathy, you still have some phytochemicals in there, but they’re very, very mild. So nowhere near therapeutic dose, and then use the costs, which means that you kind of shake it. And certain number of times, to let the water kind of spread the energy of that plant and make it kind of energetic as well as physical. And this form of, of preparation I just started using recently, I’ve seen completely incredible results, I still myself find it hard to believe. But one of the, as you know, one of the areas where I find particularly useful is gut health, where, you know, when we work with dysbiosis, and a lot of pathogens and parasites and so on, in the body, we normally would give you know anti microbials black wall not sometimes garlic, sometimes warm would pour Darko especially if yeast is present, and so on. So you kind of do herbal mix and everything comes down. And then six months later, a patient comes and says, Oh, you know, I’m bloated, again, I’m having a lot of symptoms. And all of that comes back because of the biofilm, which had this column of microbes form that are very hard to penetrate. Just was kind of normal medication. So it’s like a protective layer, which sits underneath that you need to break through. And this is how my botanicals work so amazingly well, on that particular issue. And the way I kind of explained it to myself, you know, it’s a very hard layer to penetrate. For supplements like enzymes, or antimicrobial herbs and so on. Energy, it goes through anything, the energy goes through walls through you know, distance. So, so So energy must be penetrating the biofilm. And that’s why when I use homeo botanicals in my practice, I mean, I always start with herbs anyway, but but then when I use homeo botanicals, the the effect was kind of finite, and you know, symptoms don’t come back, because it’s to be so effective at this biofilm disruption. In my opinion, and again, there are no kind of trials and clinical studies on that. So it’s just the experience of myself and this this group of people who are using common botanicals, they’re doing it for 50 years. And yeah, there’s so many things in in life that we don’t understand, but they still work. And that is amazing of them are the ones that we actually this.
Sandra 24:06
I’m gonna just talk about my personal experience actually taken out the tincture that you gave me, which was, you know, we had a chat recently. And, you know, I’ve been going through some personal stuff that’s been quite tough, and you gave me a tincture and you sort of didn’t tell me what you believed it was going to do. So I don’t, you know, it’s not like I thought something was going to happen. And then it happened because I manifested it but I actually have been because I got my allotment back in April. And I saw you I think in July and since I got my allotment, I’ve been having terrible hip pains because I’ve been doing some I did something at the very beginning where I was trying to clear the plot and it’s given me a really bad hip pain and I was thinking Have I got arthritis, like what’s going on? You know, I’m getting really old and my body’s falling apart and you know, I don’t know what you gave me. But the day after I started taking it, a texted you because I was a went for a walk, and my hip got so bad and it was clicking, I could hear it and the person that was walking with could hear it and I was like, this does something really wrong with my hip, I’m gonna have to go to the doctor’s. But anyway, the next day, or even that evening, the pain was completely gone. And this was a daily thing that I’ve had to you know, couldn’t sit comfortably or couldn’t walk comfortably. And it’s still gone now. So it’s been two months now. And actually, I haven’t, I haven’t even spoken to you about this, because I’m sort of still so kind of like, what was that, that you gave me? I could, you know, you obviously it was trying to support me with my emotional but then was the head. You know, I’ve truly believed that physical, your emotional. You know, whatever might be going on emotionally can manifest physically in your body in different ways. And so I think that that’s what’s happened. You’ve worked on the emotion and it’s got rid of the physical manifestation, but 100% attribute that hip pain going away with take it from taking home your botanicals?
Jenya 26:12
Yeah, well, actually, I think you’ve taken homoeopathy because you’ve taken the sugar pill that day, didn’t you? That drops the drops. Okay. So, essentially,
Sandra 26:27
I pass as well. So yeah, good.
Jenya 26:31
Yes. You know, the drops. So hummingbird tanks a little bit more specific, they go to work on the gatehouse, or you know, whatever on the house. But with homoeopathy, essentially what happens, we all have our characteristics, our mental, emotional, physical, and essentially, the role of a Homoeopath is to match this footprint with the right remedy that has very similar descriptions. So you know, when you look at the remedies that for example I gave you, you would find certain kinds of characteristics that match to how you present it to me. But this remedy, actually doesn’t work on any particular symptom. So I’ve given that you know, for the emotional stuff of what you were going through, but actually what it does, it increases your vital force, and it creases self healing mechanism of the body. So with the right remedy, everything gets healed. It’s just that the body starts, you know, correcting those imbalances. And it’s very, very often that you work with some hormonal issue or emotional issues person comes and says, Oh, you know, and this, this got better. And sometimes very interestingly, because, like you said, it was clicking a little bit, as I said, the symptoms get magnified. And sometimes saying, oh, you know, I had this, this space in my heap 10 years ago, and all of a sudden, the tree appeared, and then you know, it was gone. That’s actually really amazing. Because that means that it was still sitting there as a, as a layer, not allowing for some kind of processes to happen. And it when, and actually the best is also when people say, Oh, I spiked a fever, fever and homoeopathy, that’s actually an amazing thing we always ask when did you also have fever, because that’s a sign of a vital force being strong. That’s a sign that your army, you know, is there and it’s possible to fight is capable of fighting and has all those necessary ways of killing disease. Because if a person comes to me, and says, I haven’t had a fever, or I haven’t had a cold or flu for five years, that’s not a good thing for me, because they’ve been pathogens. They’ve been, you know, in those situations where they should have had a fever. But maybe the vital force was not strong enough, and it was kind of lingering, and maybe they felt a bit sluggish. Eventually, they got over whatever they had. And that’s not a good thing. Having said that, there’s about 10% of superhumans. That very strong vitality, who never get ill. And it’s also possible, but, you know, you don’t often see them in your clinic.
Sandra 29:37
I mean, that you can see that in children, can’t you they can spike a route like a 40 degree fever, and then the next day, they’re totally fine. And whereas we as adults, we might be sort of grumbling appears around sort of 38 or 37 point something for a week and just kind of then you feel exhausted for another couple of weeks afterwards. And that’s sort of a nice She went to a talk once by an another Homoeopath, who works with children, as she said, try not to get the children Calpol, because you’re kind of putting a lid on that. You know what’s going on? And actually, if you use I think she also mentioned was the aconite or whatever it is, but actually, yeah, and the fever helps the body’s immune system complete the complete the complete cycle. So you know, what your body needs, it’s actually the resolution at the end, which you don’t get if you’re using a drug to suppress your body’s innate function. And then, over time, you know, you’re, you’re done potentially hampering your immune system from working as well as it could. And I think that a lot of adults probably do feel like they don’t really get that fever anymore. Yeah,
Jenya 30:52
and, you know, if you think about fever, or infection as also access toxicity, right, because microbes and viruses produce toxins, that’s why we have aches and pains and, and so on. And when you have that fever, it’s like a very strong detox for the body, you want it to burn through you too. And also sometimes, you know, sweat it out, and so on. So you want to get that you want once the while for your pathogens to be killed. And it might not be even ongoing infection, you know, we have pathogens in the gut, and so on. It’s like, kind of resetting the button, on your microbiome in the body and on your vitality. So it’s a great cleansing the fever.
Sandra 31:42
So interesting. Anyway, we’re here to talk about Hormonal Health and endometriosis and PCOS, ideally, so what, you know, obviously, you’re part of the fertility nutrition centre, and we’ll work together and we all we’re all, you know, we’re all on board with the diet and the lifestyle and everything that’s, you know, we all know works, but sometimes people need a bit of a helping hand. Certainly, if the conditions been with you for a very long time. So let’s talk about in the metro system and what how would you kind of address this as part of, you know, with your herbs in your homoeopathy as part of the overall protocol.
Jenya 32:21
Yeah, so, it’s kind of we know now and to Medusas, is the imbalance of the immune system, which kind of manifests in various hormonal dysregulation, right. So the root is very much in the guard and translocation of the microbes from the gut, to the bloodstream, and then you know, they obviously travel to the uterus and, and cause this inflammation that then results in in this lesions, endometrial lesions, which can actually go way beyond your trust into fallopian tubes into pelvic cavities, sometimes in the lungs, and so on. And so that there are quite a few causes, but for me, the the starting point would be always to look at the gut and look at the kind of overall levels of inflammation. And quite often so you know, and the majority is often categorised as autoimmune condition. Also, not everyone agrees. And at the core of it is our leaky gut. So it’s the God that’s been under attack by either, you know, some lectins and gluten and some other irritants or infect microbes. So the focus would be first to heal the gut and to use antimicrobial herbs like Barbary root black walnut, warm wood to calm the dysbiosis. And then, you know, use the, the vulnerary as we call them, so kind of healing clubs like marshmallow root and slippery elm to actually close the this lesion of the junctions, tight junctions of the guard and stop the translocation of toxins and microbes into the bloodstream. So this helps the form kind of mucilage and when you take them you often take them as a powder. So it’s like a glue that covers the digestive tract and by the way, it will help everywhere it will help you know if you have gastritis or any kind of irritation of the upper digestive tract and herbs often they’re very versatile for example, Barbary route, it’s an antimicrobial, but also it’s a bitter liver herb, so it will will help with liver function. And as we know liver is our clearing organ for hormones. So, when we talk about endometriosis, it’s accompanied by oestrogen excess in the body. So, we have a few problems you know, along various pathways, one lever not Clearing efficiently. And we ended up with either too much or kind of more toxic forms of oestrogen. And for that we need our liver, herbs and beaters in foods and also in herbal medicine, those ones that stimulate bile production and then kind of enhance liver detoxification. So you look at dandelion root Barbary root, Schisandra, Andrographis, and so on. So, you take care of the liver, then you take care of the gut, in terms of kind of leaky gut and dysbiosis. But also, as we know, there is kind of reabsorption of oestrogen from the gut. So we kind of want to, to calm that down. So that there is no like additional supply of oestrogen via that pathway. So, take care of the guy, then of course, there is also kind of supply of xenoestrogens. And, you know, everyone knows how, how to take care of that reducing plastics and toxic toxic exposures in our environment and so on. So basically, you look at various sources, or excess oestrogen either endogenously or exogenously. And also some other factors like stress, and obesity, that kind of also speed up conversion, we call it aromatization. So, conversion into oestrogen which is another source of excess oestrogen in the body. So there are quite a few pathways that you working with herbally. So I already mentioned the gut in the liver with regards to sort of calming herbs with God passionflower, California and poppy ashwagandha. The so calves like passionflower, for example, they bind to GABA, GABA receptors, so they have GABA like effect on the body. So as I said, herbs can be broken down to phytochemicals. And you know, we can kind of link them to receptors that induce certain functions in the body. I just forgotten that actually, I laugh also is a herb that does come stress but but it’s, it’s an adaptogen. So it will support your overall vitality and immune system. And it’s also a fertility tonic, especially for men. So, you know, when I work with my clients, I create a formula peaking out of 10 herbs, that calm stress, I will pick the ones that are also relevant, you know, for the immune system, if they have your immune system, or your sperm count, and so on. Because one cup can cover quite a few pathways. So you’re kind of creating this mix of loads of different actions that would cover the conditions of endometriosis. And then of course, you know, we know that the the result of endometriosis is often heavy, painful periods and clotting and a lot of blood loss, which results in anaemia and so working, you know, with supplementation, but also supporting mitochondrial function of the body to give more energy because people people are kind of exhausted. And you said you need to give them vitality to even start on this healing journey because it’s not easy. So adaptogens that work on adrenal function of the body, they either modulated so if you have really heightened stress response, they kind of calm it down. Sometimes it’s disrupted, right? You have a lot of cortisol in the evening, when you’re supposed to have it in the morning. So you can have very tired in the morning can function but then at night, when there’s time to sleep, you are completely awake. And that’s when sort of your adrenal function is is a little bit messed up. And what adaptogens do they normalise it so they they risk toward the the right rhythm of those stress hormones. And they also kind of protect, they very, very gently build your immune system to give it a stronger protection from infections.
Sandra 39:10
Yeah, I agree with everything that you’ve said there. I just want to say to anyone who’s kind of like furiously writing down all these names of these herbs that you have to work with the herbalist to actually and I personally wouldn’t even self prescribe, even though I know a fair bit about these things. I’m not a herbalist and I think that you know they can because they are so powerful they can also be harmful. So
Jenya 39:35
yeah, it’s a good point because actually one group that haven’t mentioned which is very relevant to hormonal balances, and one of them being vytex, which is absolutely incredible is the herb that’s still studied and not well understood because certain things we just don’t know how it works, but we know that it works. Essentially it kind of resets the button on pituitary and normalises blood option of Alicia for saying that they can control our oestrogen and progesterone. And in addition to that vytex and few other herbs like red clover, black cohosh, they are fighter estrogens, and fight. oestrogen is an incredible group of herbs for either oestrogen excess or oestrogen deficiency. So when we’re deficient in menopause, and so on, obviously, they come in and they give us this extra source of oestrogen and a healthy source. Because as I said, there’s unhealthy xenoestrogens and plastic which push oestrogen down harmful pathways linked to unwanted, you know, gross. And then this is a gentle pathway of healthy estrogens. But then when we have excess of oestrogen in the body, because they’re gentle, they actually bind to the receptors, and they compete and kind of kick out some of the more potent, more aggressive estrogens. And so in this way, they reduce the levels of oestrogen in the body when it’s an excess and when it’s unwanted. And isn’t that amazing? How it just the herbs often get in the body. And they do whatever the body needs up, regulate, down regulate, they just get in and they figure out what it is that the body needs. And then they those pathways. And, and yeah, I would agree with you. You know, vytex can actually, I always like to check some hormonal levels like LH because so vytex it can increase or decrease or modulate, let’s say oestrogen, it decreases prolactin, it’s actually one of the herbs very, very useful for the luteal phase in the menstrual cycle, which is the second part of your cycle, where you want to prepare your body for pregnancy after you know the egg is released. And, and for that you want healthy progesterone production. And vytex is known to increase progesterone and kind of help buddy prepare for pregnancy. But also it does increase luteinizing hormone and in some conditions like PCOS, it might be already raised. And in a very few cases actually haven’t had that many cases, almost nothing. But it can alter menstrual cycle. So you need to be very, very careful of administering. And in the end of the day, it’s medicine and self administering herbs in therapeutic doses I absolutely do not recommend. There are so many pathways that you need to check out. So for example, licorice, licorice, pet peony, White Peony combination, it’s amazing for polycystic ovarian syndrome, but licorice also drives your blood pressure. So it can cause hypertension, these things need to be checked. And I absolutely for taking herbs, you know as culinary herbs and foraging and having a bit of fun with him. so on. But but when you’re suffering from a chronic condition, you need to check for interruptions, you need to understand the pathways you need to understand therapeutic doses as well. Yeah, so I would recommend
Sandra 43:18
and you didn’t mention vytex, which is also Agnes cast, you know, people know by different is
Jenya 43:22
a Chasteberry Chasteberry. So this is their thing.
Sandra 43:27
But this is one that I find that people just hear about, or maybe it was a little bit more popular A while ago, I’m not sure if it’s still as popular, there’s sort of this trends in these things isn’t there, but it’s one of those things that people just buy and take. Absolutely shouldn’t know who
Jenya 43:45
that’s actually one of the hubs, I’m most cautious about in my practice when I work with hormonal imbalances, because as I said, there’s 5% of cases. And you know, sometimes it has to do with genetics, right, because we know that vytex works and so on. But there are genetic snips, which means that the pathway just won’t be active. And the people will kind of might react to it when you think it’s going you know, one direction but actually not converting to what you need. And potentially is that because it’s it’s kind of interesting, going bit into details but vytex is very much indicated for for PCOS. And very often people have elevated luteinizing hormone and yet it kind of works and it’s supposed to push it up but but I’m looking at more and more research that says that it’s more regulating the pushing up. But, you know, in those cases you absolutely need to do your checks
Sandra 44:59
are looking at blood tests and whatever it might be. So P, so you mentioned PCOS. So again, PCOS is something that we see all the time. And I suppose the most problematic with that also is that you have very long cycles left for a really long time for your ovulation or you might not have one at all at all. And so how do you approach PCOS? Yeah, so,
Jenya 45:22
so PCOS is similar to endometriosis in the sense that God plays a role stress plays a role. Obesity plays a role. And, you know, quite often you do have oestrogen dominance, but the main, of course characteristics is, is androgen dominance. So this testosterone being in excess causing symptoms like facial hair and acne, and also affecting oestrogen production and on ovulation, that’s why people don’t ovulate or you know, don’t have periods. So a big focus in addition to everything else would be to control for that and to reduce the testosterone in the body. So the two herbs that we use are already mentioned one being licorice. So licorice actually prevents conversion into testosterone from its precursor hormones. But also licorice is a very, very powerful kind of natural steroid. So it basically reduces inflammation in the body. And as we know, both endometriosis and PCOS is accompanied by inflammation. So it kind of doing two things reducing testosterone or conversion into the stressor, as well as calming the inflammation. And then we’ve got our White Peony, which speeds up conversion of testosterone into oestrogen. So oestrogen is made from testosterone via a process called aromatization. So it kind of clears to testosterone more effectively and converts it faster to oestrogen. But interestingly, you know, as I said, sometimes you do have all successes with PCOS. It kind of pushing pushes us down a less harmful pathway. So in theory, it’s kind of creating more oestrogen in the body, but it’s actually creating healthier form of oestrogen. So it does not have this the symptoms of oestrogen dominance that we have of kind of overgrowth and breast tenderness and and you know, clots and so on. And another characteristic of PCOS is you know, is elevated blood sugar and insulin resistance. So, we work with a lot of herbs that balance sugar. And one of my favourite ones is Jemima it’s it’s an Ayurvedic herb and it’s actually translated as a sugar destroyer in the body and in India, you know, people who sadly don’t have access to insulin they use gymnemic instead. So it’s very very powerful at stabilising sugar levels also, you know, Barbier route so you know, it’s active component Berberine that’s as well you know, are lovely spices and cinnamon fennel Greek, do you can use them in foods and so on. I love the preparations where you can just use it in food and kind of forget about it. But you know, when you are working therapeutically on on a chronic condition, you kind of need to make sure that you’re given therapeutic dose and so on. But for for general maintenance because one day I want people to be off herbs and just use them as little helpers in your curries. You know, taking herbal teas. I laugh medicinal vinegars were basically at all sorts of so I’ve got the immune version which is called Fire cider, with garlic and horseradish and thyme and rosemary all are mighty cups by the way, they’ve got volatile oils that increase your defences so they boost immune system so you know anything can find your garden which smells nice or not nice like one would win but I like you know my culinary proper preparations to taste nice. So this version are where basically I say mass rate, I add cups into apple cider vinegar for about six weeks and then I strain and I’ve got my immune boosting, you know, vinegar that I use a salad dressing and I added sometimes into into soups, and and then I do a bit of version where I add these hubs maybe a little bit harder to get a hold of, you know, for general public but I use my better hubs like jin tian RT show cleave, Lee it needs to be. And some spices. Because this is the betta helper, I call it
Sandra 50:10
really I love that one I’m obsessed with. And you do have these at the clinic as well, too.
Jenya 50:18
I do that these ones actually kind of mix in my own kitchen. So I cannot do a massive production, but have them in my clinic. But what I’ve also done, I have created, you know, herbal formulas for general concerns. So when I see someone for consultation, they will get bespoke, you know, formulations that relate to their, their causes and symptoms and so on. But then I, you know, had people over the years who were saying, can you just give me something to boost your immunity in winter, or, you know, I don’t have time for all of the protocols, but I really need a bit of energy, I’m going on this business trip, or I have a time in my life where I really need this extra boost. So I created an adaptogen mix, you know, that would boost energy give more vitality, called Kickstarter, I’ve created an immune tonic, it was actually June COVID. So it works for all of you know, viral symptoms and chest infections. It’s called Game Changer. But the beauty of herbs, as I said, they’re not actually you know, specific programme things. So, herbs are almost never antimicrobial, or antifungal or antiviral. They actually all of those things. And of course, you’ll find more research, for example, for let’s say poor Darko, mono, and for Candida and yeast, and then maybe olive leaf, or elderberry is known more for viral. But that’s not to say that they don’t do all other things, it’s just that there is the research been done focusing on these properties. Because what they do in the body that kind of wake up the immune system that will then figure out what to fight and how. So, you know, virus or microbial or what have you, what you do with herbs, you just boost your immune system that then deals with it. However, you know, it decides best for the body. And that’s why it’s great. You know, in medicine, we always need to know do have, you know, a viral infection, or do you have microbial then you do antibiotics, which obviously not work for the virus. And it’s very, very specific. And with herbs, it’s not it’s just kind of fight anything with the right tools
Sandra 52:39
just helps your natural defences. Again,
Jenya 52:42
do what it needs to do. Certainly,
Sandra 52:46
yeah. Okay. And so what about ovulation? And because I find that this is one thing that actually can take a bit of time, it can be quite frustrating. You know, and again, looking at the sort of 360 health I often recommend reflexology or acupuncture, but do you have hopes and tinctures that can actually help bring on a period or regulate the cycle will help it happen quicker?
Jenya 53:17
Yeah, absolutely. So of course, we do need to look at the course right. So, you know, we know that cortisol and stress and so on can affect ovulation. So if that’s the issue, you’ll be working with that. We know that you need a healthy amount of oestrogen that needs, you know for ovulation to happen because there’s a positive feedback at some stage between the oestrogen FSH and LH Alicia is a hormone that triggers ovulation, right? So we kind of need to make sure that you’ve got sufficient amount of oestrogen for that feedback to happen. And so the fighter estrogens would be very good for that. Also, you know that there’s a group of clubs, it’s called a mana gogs that you often give to, to to kind of simulate the period and that almost kind of wakes up uterine muscles. So we’ve got a condition called well in Chinese medicine, it’s called Qi stagnation, blood stagnation and and you know, a lot of endometriosis and fibroids and those kinds of conditions linked to stagnation in the pelvic area, where you sort of need to improve the tone and let’s say kind of healthy contractions of the uterus and improve the circulation in that area. And herbs like mother words and and Angelica sinensis, which is don’t quite there and also rugby relief. They’re the you try and tonics that help kind of turn the muscle and help for this kick to kick start that process. In that way, And and then of course, you know progesterone plays a role because it’s fluctuations that what eventually triggers the period. But I would say the most work would go into making sure that ovulation happens. And then that’s how kind of the period happens. But with regards to warm to this uterine tonics, it’s actually a very interesting topic in herbal medicine, because it’s also used to prevent miscarriages. And you think, okay, can you do it because you might overstimulate and you know, or was the loss of the foetus? Ba. But again, like often in herbal medicine, they make sure the uterus set at the right tone, they don’t, they would never overstimulate and kind of harm the body in that way. So when we have a very weak tone, that’s when the loss happens. And we want it to be kind of a bit strong and contracting in a more potent way. But it wants to kind of send it into over contraction than that it will, you know, induce some some kind of miscarriage, that’s actually raspberry leaf, it’s safely given in the third trimester of pregnancy, and won’t cause any, any kind of loss. It will actually just help healthy contractions to happen in when the time is right, essentially. So these group of herbs is often used to kind of tone the uterus and how, you know, for the menstrual cycle to happen. But as you as you rightly said, for the healthy period to occur. It’s the you know, the, the ovulation side of things that’s important. And we know that testosterone reduces or affects oestrogen and basically turns off ovulation. So removing excess testosterone was the creation and Peony building, healthy, oestrogen with with phytoestrogens. So all of those herbs will will go into ovulation support that I like to hit cycle as well. You, you use that too? Yeah. So quite a few herbs at our disposal for that.
Sandra 57:23
In this, I’ve said I wasn’t I wasn’t going to keep him more than an hour. And I think it’s been an hour. But I actually even though I’ve been doing this for 15 years and you know, in conjunction with herbalist, it always, it was always a bit of a mystery to me. So it’s sort of like, let’s, I’m going to, you know, I’m going to recommend this herbalist, you can go see them, it’s a bit mysterious to me, but you know, it’s really effective. That’s stuck in my head. That’s how it went. But actually, you’ve really made me understand it in such a different way now because herbs work not just on the physical level, which is obviously what we mainly do in nutritionists, we work with the physical, we would do address the mental emotional as well. But you’ve then got the other layers of kind of the subconscious and the energy and how you can kind of almost get to that as a shortcut.
Jenya 58:13
Yeah. You know, I’m a, I’m a big believer also in kind of manifestations and gratitude. And I believe that the healing always happens when you you kind of are in a in positive vibrations, you know, on a scale of consciousness, all this stuff like fear and jealousy and anger that keeps us down. That’s actually very, very difficult for healing to happen at that level. And when you experience gratitude and unconditional love, and just joy of doing silly little things that you enjoy that make you laugh, you know, happy little moments with friends and family, playing with your dog, anything, even watching your series, that might be silly, but they create some positive response in terms of energy in your body. So when you’ve elevated this vibrations, that’s when it’s very, very conducive to healing. That’s also when we make the right decisions. That’s also when we have the energy to implement those changes. When our path is clear, we you know, we’re more connected to the universe. And then you know, you bring manifestations to it, imagine yourself in a perfect state state of health, you know, with a healthy period, and whatever, you know, the baby and manifesting as if it’s already happened to happy family and so on. That’s actually very, very powerful. And again, can’t measure it, but I know it works. And it should be kind of part of everyone’s fertility journey. And I actually wanted also to mention one hub. If you have a few minutes I haven’t actually mentioned it, but it’s just a beautiful, very unscientific legend about herb called hisher Woo, in Latins called Polygonum multiflorum. And if you Google it, you will see a very, very interesting picture of kind of a naked, female and male. That’s how the root of this plant looks like. And according to this doctrine of signatures, which says that the nature actually has given us clues, what will be will be helpful for and there was this Chinese man who was 100 years old, and his 100 years old wife trying to get pregnant without any luck. And then he will, he dug that fine in his garden. And he’s like, Oh, my God, this route looks very, very fertile. And then they’ve taken it, and she had lots of babies, and they’ve lived until 300 years old. So it’s a very beautiful legend. And since then, all the Chinese believe that this hub kind of can give them eternal life, if they find a route, which is 1000 years old, and so on. But anyhow, so they use it as the Aleksey of fertility. It’s actually it’s, so the man man and his wife reverse their grey hair, and then they had beautiful teeth and so on. So it’s like an Aleksey reviews that no phytochemical is picking is actually considered an adaptogen. But, you know, there’s beautiful LED turns that if anyone has spare time, also really nice to read to get in the mood for a certain herb and this herb is actually used for an unexplained infertility because sometimes we don’t know why we’ve checked everything, right. And sometimes, you know, the issue is with your energy and and, you know, your fears and, and that sort of things. We can’t measure in tests at this this moment, but of course, we discover all of this in consultations and we have tools to help people overcome it and actually come up see is also a great tool because helps with fears and anxiety and so on. But yeah, sometimes there are these herbs like iShowU false unicorn route. And also Shatavari is another very important fertility herb asparagus route. And they are sometimes just use as as a general fertility tonic, and sometimes in cases where we also don’t know but when they say they’ve been used throughout centuries was was positive outcomes.
Sandra 1:02:52
So interesting. You mentioned Chinese herbs and obviously, you there’s a difference between Western herbalist and Chinese medicine.
Jenya 1:03:02
I’m in not quite because I’ve trained in all herbs. So was, you know, I don’t know, every Chinese herb, so is herbalist would know hundreds more. But actually most adaptogens are Chinese for example, and hormone balances come from China will also kind of Mongolia Siberia. It’s sort of the same area. And and Western herbalist doesn’t necessarily focus on Western herbs depends how they were trained. So at the College of naturopathic medicine, we were trained in American herbs and western Indian and Chinese so we kind of use use them across the board. But, you know, there’s a Dr. Christopher, who is a famous herbalist. Back in the day here, he’s like a father of herbal medicine. So he only used term herbs and his practice and he cued most conditions with them. Because as I said, herbs are very versatile. So it doesn’t really almost matter. I like it a little bit broader because well, so you kind of want to explore it. I do read research and you know, I like discovering kind of new actions and applications of herbs. By it very much depends on the person, you can actually work with a limited range of herbs, focusing on the core components else like stress, like infection side of things and detox pathways. And you don’t need them any herbs for that, actually.
Sandra 1:04:43
Right. So I mean, I think we’ve established that you shouldn’t do this on your own. So if somebody wants to get ahold of you, what’s the best way to connect with you and to find you? Yeah,
Jenya 1:04:55
so the best way is to Connect either by Instagram, which is @jenyadipierro or right to clinic. So it’s jdpclinic@cloudtwelve.co.uk. Yeah, so either by email or Instagram is the best way.
Sandra 1:05:20
And you see clients from Cloud Twelve. And Notting Hill. Yes online.
Jenya 1:05:26
I can do both. Give people a choice. They can either come and see me at my clinic in Notting Hill, Cloud Twelve. Or we can do sessions online then I would send herbs and homoeopathy.
Sandra 1:05:40
Well, lovely. Thank you so much.
Jenya 1:05:42
You’re welcome Sandra. I really enjoyed our conversation.
Sandra 1:05:49
I really enjoyed this chat with Jenya and I hope you enjoyed listening to this episode. Please like, save, share and rate this podcast if you found that useful, as it helps us reach more people. Also, don’t forget your 10% discount on tests with Neovos using the code FERTILITY at the checkout. And if you’re looking for a fertility specialist to support you, all practitioners can all be contacted over at www.fertilitynutritioncentre.org And they all offer a free strategy call to help you decide on your next steps on your journey. Thank you for listening.
